A New Beginning
by Deathnotestrawberry
Summary: After the events of The Last Of The Timelords, the master survives and is forgiven. After agreeing to travel with the Doctor how will their sudden change alter their relationship? Rated M for later chapters  Doctor/Master Slash


"You could be so beautiful."

I know that he was just saying it, trying to make me stop, but that got to me and for a second, just one second, I wandered. What if he was telling the truth? What if he meant it? Suddenly I wanted to go with him. I wanted to believe him. No. I had to stop thinking like that. This was it. I lost track then, lost in my ponderings and plans, and the next thing I knew, it was me, him and the Timelords. He looked terrible, so cut up and injured. There was something in his hand. Was that a gun?

He was pointing it at me, then at Rassilon, then back again. He looked lost, not knowing what to do. It seemed so otherworldly seeing him like that with a weapon in his hand, but I guess that's what this was, another world, and all because of me. He didn't know what to do or where to aim. I couldn't help but to pray that he would shoot Rassilon and not me. I wanted another chance. I needed to be able to prove the Doctor right!

Then he stopped, gun aimed at me. No. He couldn't. He couldn't do this! Please, not now, I wasn't ready. No!

"Get out of the way"

Then I got it. He wasn't choosing me. He wasn't choosing Rassilon either, but he wasn't choosing me! He was choosing the machine. I jumped out of the way just in time for him to shoot, destroying the machine and sending the Timelords back.

"You'll die with me then Doctor"

"I know."

He couldn't die. And I wasn't about to let him.

"Get out of the way" I told him.

I could end this. And that's what I was going to do. I shot at Rassilon with all the power I had left in my body, leaving just enough to keep my two hearts beating. The heartbeat of a Timelord. Four beats. Just like the drumming. The maddening drumming. Beating in my head for oh so long. I tried to find it now, but it was gone. Finally.

"I'm alive." The Doctor sounded so surprised. "I'm still alive."

I felt like crying I was so happy. After all he had done for me; I finally got my chance to save him.

We both heard it then. The four knocks. It was the old man all along. But why this? Why now? The Doctor was alive. He had to be! He couldn't die now just because I stupid prophecy told him so! Prophecies have been wrong before. They can be wrong now.

Tears started pouring out of the doctors eyes.

"They've gone then? Good-o. If you could let me out?

"Yeah..."

"Only this thing seems to be making a bit of noise."

"The master left the nuclear bolt running. It's going into overload."

"Oh, and that's bad is it?"

"No, because the excess radiation gets vented in there. Vinvocci glass. Contains it. All 500,000 rads, about to flood that thing."

"Oh, well you better get me out then..." Wilfred said, with nervous laughter.

"Except it's gone critical. One touch and it floods." The Doctor then held up his sonic screwdriver. "Even this could set it off."

"I'm sorry."

"Sure."

"Look, just leave me."

"Ok, alright then, I will!" The doctor sounded so angry, "Because you just had to go in there, didn't you? You had to go and get stuck, oh yes! Because that's who you are, Wilfred! You were always this. Waiting for me all this time!"

"Oh, really, just leave me. I'm an old man, Doctor, I've had my time."

"Well, exactly, look at you. Not remotely important. But me... I could do so much more! So much more! But this is what I get, my reward. _And it's not fair!_" I couldn't stand seeing him like this. There must have been something I could do! "I've lived too long." There was an air of acceptance in his voice. "Wilfred, it would be my honour"

No. No, he couldn't do this. "No!" I couldn't help but scream.

The doctor turned and looked at me, tears still running down his face. Suddenly I knew what I could do. I mustered all the strength I could find and ran towards the box, pushing the doctor out of the way. I heard his voice behind me, begging me to stop, but I couldn't. This was something I had to do. I pressed the button releasing Wilfred and locking myself in. A sense of agony flowed over me as the radiation seeped in and my body absorbed each drop. I was dying. I could feel each and every cell in my body disintegrating and there was nothing I could do to stop it. I couldn't regenerate, I was too weak.

He was next to me then. The door had opened and the doctor was next to me, holding me in his arms. I could feel the warmth of his tears dripping onto my face. I felt him place his hands on either side of my head, reaching into my mind. All of a sudden, something inside my brain clicked. I could feel a new release of power surging into me. I felt my Timelord ability to regenerate return to me once more. I'm not sure how he managed it but somehow he brought me back to life. My skin started to glow beneath his fingers. I didn't want to change, not now, I had only just got him, and I didn't want to have to regenerate so a new man could simply saunter away with him. For some reason it stopped then. It just stopped. I didn't regenerate, I had just healed.

"W-w-what happened?"

"I brought you back to life, your Timelord life, anyway. I accessed your regeneratory cortex and for all intensive purposes, kick started it. You don't have the power to fully regenerate, not yet anyway. You'll have to wait until the next time you die for that. Just... Don't do it any time soon ok?"

I stood up, still in shock. I couldn't quite believe what he'd just done for me. I grabbed the Doctor and hugged him as tight as I could, praying he wouldn't push me away. "I'm so sorry..."

"I have to go"

Wilfred stepped towards him. "You can't leave now!"

"Yes I can, see, this is me. Leaving."

"But Doctor," I cried out, "what about me?"

"You? Well you're coming with me aren't you?"

I felt myself smiling as I followed him to the TARDIS. This was it. My new beginning with the Doctor.


End file.
